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00:00:01 [Applause] [Music] the new year is here and we're looking sideways at the year that was 2020 planned on calendar undone change unexpected grief unwanted up close and personal reminders of all we do not know all we do not see so we look back and remember we acknowledge what took place we asked lingering questions and then surrender yield every part to the lord resting in the arms of the one who sees and knows next we look ahead and we consider what's to come in 2021 all we do not know all we do not see we acknowledge
00:01:09 fears of the unknown tendencies to hold back from making plans that might fall through then surrender all what will take place what will not trusting the one who sees what tomorrow holds he knows we look back we look ahead and do what we know to do because he said so abide in christ through prayer and the word daily ask for and walk in the wisdom and power of the holy spirit foolish to launch out on our own strength we fellowship with our brothers and sisters we encourage and love one another we love
00:01:59 our enemies and we go we go and make disciples of all nations serving our king let's pray father we're at the beginning of a new year we pray that you the god of our lord jesus christ would give each of us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you make us hungry to know you teach us your ways we pray that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened so we know daily what is the hope of your calling may we overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit for you are the god of hope
00:02:48 we pray we may know what is the wealth of your glorious inheritance in the saints our brothers and sisters in christ we are the body members of one another differently gifted we need each other as we seek to do your will in this world we pray that we may know what is the immeasurable greatness of your power toward us who believe according to the mighty working of your strength and so we surrender all we do not know and all we cannot see and father we want to pray for this nation we pray for the leadership that you
00:03:32 would give them wisdom and guidance that they would rule within integrity honesty justice and that righteousness would prevail [Music] and whether we pray for the country as we're suffering because of the covet 19 pandemic i want to pray especially for those who are currently sick for those who are grieving the loss of loved ones for those who have had financial problems because of the pandemic and for those who are suffering emotional difficulties because of loneliness and separation and isolation
00:04:10 so we want to pray for all who have been negatively affected by the pandemic including the refugees and the migrant workers who are among us and father god we pray not only for those affected by covet but you see that so many people have so many other needs difficulties problems in life and we also want to pray for them and we especially want to pray for those who are ill and have needs in our church and father today we want to bring before you chi-ha daniel quick gloria roy judy lim crystal ong lai peng
00:04:51 lamitan lam choi phong michael soon professor tan pastor rama tan kim lok tan leisu victor lial vivian gu father as we bring them before you you know the needs in their lives and we pray that you would minister to them that they would feel a sense of your presence with them and that you would work in their lives and their bodies restoring them to strength and health almighty god we also pray for the elders the pastors other leaders in our church we give you thanks for all who are continuing and faithfully
00:05:46 serving you for the many things that go on behind the scenes that most of us aren't even aware of but you're aware of it and we give you thanks for their willingness to serve you we ask for your blessing your strength your guidance for each one of them almighty god as we get ready to go through this new year we give you thanks for your presence with us we give you things that you have promised that you will be with us and that your holy spirit will indwell us give us the power the strength we need
00:06:20 almighty god we also pray that during the remainder of the service you will speak to our hearts through your word and show how we can personally apply your word to our lives in jesus name i pray amen today's scripture reading is taken from the book of matthew chapter 3 verses 1 to 17. in those days john the baptist came preaching in the wilderness of judea and saying repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near this is he who was spoken of through the prophet isaiah a voice of one calling in the wilderness
00:06:57 prepare the way for the lord make straight paths for him john's clothes were made of camel's hair and he had a leather belt around his waist his food was locus and wall honey people went out to him from jerusalem and all judea and the whole of region of jordan confessing their sins they were baptized by him in the jordan river but when he saw many of the pharisees and sadducees coming to where he was baptizing he said to them you brood of vipers who warn you to flee from the coming wrath produce fruit in keeping with repentance
00:07:31 and do not sing you can say to yourselves we have abraham as our father i tell you that out of these stones god can raise up children for abraham the x is already at the root of the trees and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire i baptize you with water for repentance but after me comes one who is more powerful than i whose sandals i am not worthy to carry he will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire his winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor
00:08:05 gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chef with unquenchable fire then jesus came from galilee to the jordan to be baptized by john but john tried to deter him saying i need to be baptized by you and do you come to me jesus replied let it be so now it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness then john consented as soon as jesus was baptized he went up out of the water at that moment heaven was open and he saw the spirit of god descending like a dove and a lighting on him
00:08:41 and a voice from heaven said this is my son whom i love with him i am well pleased this is the word of the lord as 2020 has drawn to a close and we we've begun a new year many of us desire a better year in 2021. there is the hope that things might improve especially with the promise of vaccines that are supposed to be coming but yet in our current situation many people are struggling almost 2 000 years ago the setting for our scripture passage today many of the people in judea were struggling they faced enormous difficulties yet
00:09:23 they had hope that their situation would get better try to imagine what it might have been like as an average hebrew living in judea at that time you would have known that you were part of god's chosen people you probably would have heard that being a physical descendant of abraham guaranteed that you were right with god so undoubtedly you would have felt some religious pride and you might have had a sense of ethnic and racial superiority thinking you were better than all other peoples yet when you looked around there didn't
00:10:03 seem to be much evidence of any advantages of being part of god's people the entire country was under military occupation by roman soldiers gentiles whose very presence was enough to bring defilement plus there was the heavy burden of taxation placed on everyone and you knew you were being cheated by dishonest tax collectors and that the money was being used to line the pockets of corrupt officials and to support the further oppression of your people many people lived in poverty and those who had
00:10:41 means were for the most part filled with greed and selfishness they seem to have little concern for the needs of the poor and the less fortunate why even some of the religious leaders the sadducees appeared to be primarily interested in money as well as having a strong desire for political influence the impression you might have had of the sadducees was that they were concerned with religion primarily as a way to bring prosperity and as a means for personal power and advancement and then there were the pharisees they
00:11:18 appeared to be very devout they were extremely legalistic and they followed every tiny detail of the law for example they would painstakingly count their seeds to make sure they gave exactly enough to equal one-tenth of their possessions and maybe they were very exact in their counting because they wanted to make sure they did not give too much right it seemed that the pharisees often majored on relatively minor things such as counting the number of steps they took on the sabbath but surely that's
00:11:56 not what was important to god the pharisees seemed eager to parade their piety before others but maybe there was more show than substance if you had lived in judea 2000 years ago you would have undoubtedly heard from childhood stories about a coming king a deliverer someone who would save his people god promised through many of his prophets that someone special would come and this person would execute justice and make all things right but all of those prophetic words were hundreds of years old some even a
00:12:35 thousand years or more but then one day you heard exciting news after 400 years of silence god had now spoken he had sent his people a new messenger a prophet named john and john had a clear message from god that brought hope unlike the current religious leaders john was content with a low standard of living he seemed to have no desire for material things or prestige his only mission was to declare the word he had received from god wearing simple clothing of camel's hair and the leather belt he would have appeared much like the
00:13:20 ancient prophet elijah could this be the one of whom the prophet malachi had spoken in chapter 3 behold i send my messenger and he will prepare a way for me and again in chapter 4 behold i will send you elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the lord comes john was preaching that people should get ready for the coming of the king he was even saying that the coming kingdom was very near now this would have been thrilling news because it would appear that john might be the voice of one
00:13:58 crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the lord make his past straight as foretold by the prophet isaiah in chapter 40. if you had been a jew 2000 years ago in judea you probably would have gone out into the judean desert to the place alongside the jordan river where john was preaching and baptizing to experience firsthand what was going on crowds of people thronged to hear the message john was preaching and to be baptized by him and what was the message john was preaching it was a very simple steer clear and straightforward
00:14:40 message repent for the kingdom of heaven is here to hear that the kingdom of god was near was exciting to know that the long-awaited messiah the anointed king was coming and coming soon was good news but strangely enough there was no call to raise an army to welcome the king and to fight with him to free the people from oppression bringing long-awaited deliverance to a needy people and there was no mention of hiring a distinguished architect to design a palace nor were there talks about plans for a massive building program
00:15:21 and yet a king was coming plans needed to be made things needed to be made ready but the preparation needed was for lives to be transformed and renewed the hearts of people must be made ready to receive the king how by repentance now repent and repentance are words that are found often in the bible the old testament prophets called the people to repent to turn back to god and we see that repent is the first word out of the mouth of john the baptist the first message jesus gave in his earthly ministry was identical to the
00:16:06 message of john the baptist he said repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and in mark chapter 6 verse 12 we read that the 12 disciples went out and proclaimed that people should repent after jesus crucifixion and resurrection he gave his disciples preaching instructions and he told them that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all peoples at the end of the apostle peter's first sermon he told his hearers they needed to repent he did not say raise your hand nor
00:16:47 bow your head and repeat this simple prayer he said repent and the apostle paul said that he preached to everyone both jew and gentile repentance toward god and faith in our lord jesus christ when the word repent is used that much and more importantly when it is a major part of the message of the prophets of jesus and of the apostles it is essential that we understand what the word repent means and even more crucial that we experience it what does the word repentance mean does it just mean to say i'm sorry
00:17:33 or just to apologize and i've heard people from some confessions that were talking about doing penance as if our good deeds could somehow make up for a misdeed in the new testament our word repentance is a translation of the greek word metanoia a word which is made up of a combination of two words which are translated change and mind or thinking so a beginning understanding of the meaning of repentance includes it is a change of mind or a change in the way we think but john and also jesus spoke mainly to hebrew
00:18:14 audiences so their hearers would have understood the meaning of the word repentance in light of the hebrew verb for repentance that is used in scripture and that word means to turn around to new actions the new testament writings would be influenced by that hebrew verb so what is meant is not merely an intellectual change of mind rather what is meant is a radical transformation of the entire person the mind the heart the entire life this will inevitably result in fruit that is in keeping with repentance
00:18:53 as john said so it sounds like repentance is the change that happens on the inside that results in changes on the outside right yes it begins as implied by the greek meaning of the word with the change of mind with a change in our thinking what we know think believe about god changes this happens when we hear a clear presentation of the gospel message and when we are exposed to the teachings of scripture then god's spirit will convince us of the truth of the gospel our understanding of who god is and his
00:19:35 claims on our life will change to conform to how he has revealed himself through his word yes when we realize who jesus is and what he's done and what he's done for us our thinking about everything changes our understanding of who we are changes created and loved by god yet separated from him because of our sin and our understanding of sin changes as we realize sin is not only outward acts of disobedience but can include thoughts and attitudes matters of the mind and of the heart so if you truly allow god to change your
00:20:21 thinking that would surely lead to a change of the heart we will experience changes in our values our priorities and our goals as we begin we begin to want what god wants and as we let him transform our will into his will our reason for living changes possessions and position are no longer our highest priorities comfort and security are no longer our utmost concern and there will be a within us a growing desire to love god to spend time with him in prayer and in his word there will also be a growing concern for
00:21:06 other people when god changes our thinking we come to understand how much god loves all people all the people that he created and this changes our heart as we see people through god's eyes we feel his heart of love for them for instance we become aware that a friend is experiencing loneliness and depression because of the isolation caused by the mco and we seek to find a way to encourage them or we we become burdened for a neighbor who is far away from god and we have a burning desire to share the gospel
00:21:49 with them when there's a change in our heart we'll also experience contrition not just feeling a tinge of regret and definitely not just being sorry you got caught but having a broken heart over our sin and disobedience as the psalmist said in psalm 51 as he repented of his sin the sacrifices of god are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart oh god you will not despise the change of heart is a work of god in his grace god speaks to us through his word and then his holy spirit brings conviction of sin
00:22:36 and enables us to respond to god in repentance and when we allow god to change our thinking and also to change our heart the result is a change in the direction of our lives it's like making a u-turn instead of living a self-centered life we want to live a life that is god-centered instead of focusing mainly on our own desires we seek to follow god's will and obey him then because god has changed us on the inside and given us a new direction in life there will be changes in how we live what we do
00:23:20 or what we don't do what we say or what we don't say in all of these areas we will begin to see some changes but it's important to understand that repentance begins on the inside with the change in our thinking and the change in our heart then we will be able to bring forth fruit of repentance as the scripture says it's doubtful true repentance has taken place if there is no outward evidence in our text this morning john called the people to true repentance and multitudes heard him gladly they repented they came confessing their
00:24:03 sin and they were baptized now baptism was something that most jews had never personally experienced although baptism was practiced it was reserved for non-jews for gentiles for those coming from other religions when gentiles were ready to renounce their former faith and their idolatries they were baptized to be accepted into judaism this was something new for a jew to be baptized evidently the multitudes that john baptized realized their hearts were not right with god they had come to understand that their
00:24:44 religious cultural and family backgrounds couldn't make them right before god they needed a change of heart they needed forgiveness of sin they needed something they could not accomplish through their own works they needed god and his grace so through the outward visible symbol of baptism they were testifying of an inward change that they had experienced when we get to verse 7 in our text we see a dramatic encounter between john and some religious leaders many of the pharisees and sadducees were
00:25:26 coming to where john was baptizing now we don't know their motives maybe they just wanted to inspect what was happening maybe they wanted to see if it met with their approval or maybe they wanted to be baptized possibly to put on an outward show of piety to show how ready they were for the coming of the messiah but john knew they were filled with pride and self-righteousness he knew they had truly not repented so he cried out to them you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come bear fruit in
00:26:06 your lives to prove you have truly repented then john told them just because you are descended from abraham does not make you right with god why god could raise up children of abraham from these stones and john told the religious leaders that they faced severe judgment they and what they stood for was like a tree which bore no fruit and such a tree would be chopped down cut off from the root thrown into the fire and burned up can you imagine how people in our church might respond if the preachers were to speak to our
00:26:49 congregation the way john spoke to those pharisees and sadducees you mean like this you sons of snakes why did you bother to crawl in front of your computer today to tune in to did you just want to make yourself feel better about how good and faithful you are or what if they said i don't really care about what you've done for the church or how much money you've given i want to know what you're doing with your life where are you headed and don't give me some polite banal answer or what if they said this is not
00:27:29 pretend time this is serious and there are consequences to the way we live and the choices you make so if you are here to change your ways and to open yourself up to god that's great but prove it by the way you live and if not go on slither back to where you came from i think in some churches such a sermon would result in the preacher never being invited back the pastor's wife would probably be afraid her husband would soon be unemployed and there would probably be lots of conversations and what
00:28:08 what's app texts discussing are we really going to allow that kind of preaching in our church and quite possibly some tithes and offerings would be withheld that kind of preaching is not what we expect when we come to worship we don't like it when we think we are being criticized or judged we do not want to be made to feel uncomfortable yeah i don't like that kind of preaching i don't like to be yelled at i don't like it either it might be that we feel uncomfortable with such preaching because we really don't want to change
00:28:51 we're content with life as it is maybe we're even indifferent we've become comfortable and we don't like anyone messing with our life our plans our system so we show up for worship hoping and expecting to receive affirmation to be told god loves us we want to be told that we're just fine the way we are and that we shouldn't change one thing yes but that kind of message only keeps us stuck we know the wounds that still hurt we know the relationships that are broken we see hunger and poverty and injustice all around
00:29:37 and we would rather offer excuses than offer our time and money and we know how fear can control our lives so what we really need is someone who will speak the truth to us in love one who will be honest with us about our life and who will challenge us we need truth that says life doesn't have to stay like this truth that gives hope and a way forward and we need to be reminded that we can change by god's grace to multitudes of people in john's day this was extremely good news knowing that the kingdom of heaven was
00:30:23 near that the promised messiah was coming very soon they gladly responded to the message from god with repentance but the pharisees and sadducees did not want to change in their ethnic and religious pride the pharisees thought they needed no repentance after all why do i need to repent if i've done nothing wrong and the sadducees wanted to continue in their self-centered lifestyle hang on to all the wealth and the power they could no desire for real change if that could mean risking the loss of something you value
00:31:08 more are we sometimes like this after john warned the religious leaders they faced the coming wrath of judgment because they had not repented he went on to explain more about the coming messiah the king who would reign over the kingdom of heaven he said in verse 11 i baptize you with water for repentance but he who is coming after me is mightier than i whose sandals i am not even worthy to carry he will baptize you with holy spirit and fire john was of course talking about jesus he said jesus was
00:31:54 much greater than he the lowliest of slaves had the job to carry someone's sandals so john was saying he was not worthy to even do this lowly job yet jesus later said that john was the greatest man who had ever lived so if jesus is that much greater than the greatest man who ever lived he must indeed be lord the one for whom the way was being prepared in the old testament the word lord refers to god almighty in the new testament we see jesus identified as lord matthew gives us a glimpse in chapter
00:32:40 three of the saving work that jesus will do jesus is the one who will baptize his followers with holy spirit and fire and this fulfills the prophecy in ezekiel chapter 36 where god promised i will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness a new heart i will give you and a new spirit i will put within you and i will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh i will put my spirit within you and make you follow my statutes jesus will baptize with holy spirit
00:33:27 and fire a refiner's fire which purifies jesus is indeed the savior he will purify us give us a new heart and fill us with his spirit and the king who is coming jesus is judge john said his winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor gather all of his wheat into the barn but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire the symbolism here is that of harvest time the good grain will be gathered into the barn but the worthless chaff will be burned up the coming of god's kingdom demands
00:34:16 repentance otherwise there will be judgment a judgment is good news for those who have repented and placed their faith in jesus righteousness goodness justice will prevail christ's followers will be with him forever but for those who don't repent and place their faith in jesus and for those who want merely an outward show of religion judgment will be terrible everything will be lost it will be cast into the fire and burned up here fire being a symbol for everlasting torment and suffering while john
00:35:01 proclaimed the kingdom of heaven with the resulting need to repent jesus came to him and asked to be baptized but john was hesitant he knew jesus had never sinned jesus was after all the holy one of god so he had needed no repentance and john also recognized his own need for a savior and he told jesus i need to be baptized by you but jesus told john permit this now it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness so john baptized jesus why did jesus want to be baptized by john there are many possible answers first of
00:35:55 all jesus gave validity to the message john was preaching he confirmed that everything john had said about him and the need for repentance was true at his baptism jesus publicly identified with the people he had come to save later all believers were commanded to publicly identify with jesus through baptism jesus set the example for his followers he would later give the command that all those who came to faith in him should be baptized in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit and this
00:36:37 outward act of obedience was to be a public testimony of an inward change that the believer had experienced and jesus baptism was the inauguration of his public ministry from this moment on jesus would teach and preach and perform mighty miracles then three years later he would experience what he figuratively had referred to as baptism his death on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of the world but three days later he would rise from the dead so when we are baptized we identify with the death
00:37:20 and the resurrection of jesus and we acknowledge that we too have died to sin and been raised to a new quality of life baptism can be seen as the beginning of a new believer's life of service and ministry jesus was baptized because that was god's will for him and then god the father showed his public affirmation of jesus as jesus came up out of the water the heavens were opened and the spirit of god descended like a dove to rest on jesus and the voice of god could be heard saying this is my beloved son
00:38:04 in whom i am well pleased jesus is indeed the promised messiah the anointed king the savior and the one who will judge the world he is the son of god here we see the entire godhead the trinity god the father speaks from heaven god the son begins his earthly ministry and god the holy spirit anoints and fills so today how will you respond to the good news that the kingdom of heaven has come the answer given by john and later by jesus and his disciples is repent come to god in repentance and faith
00:38:57 not grudgingly not just to escape judgment although that can be a sobering motivation but come trusting god's love for you and how do we respond to the good news that jesus is the anointed king i think the words of a carol sung by many of us weeks ago gives a great answer joy to the world the lord has come let earth receive her king enjoy we receive jesus as king and we allow him to rule over all aspects of our lives in truth and grace repentance brings joy when we are ready to accept god's incredible love given to us
00:39:49 in his beloved son now some might think i can't repent i'm not strong enough i cannot change no of course not of course you cannot repent none of us are strong enough to repent if we're dependent on our own strength but the scripture tells us that god's spirit will enable you as a matter of fact the scripture says it is god who gives repentance god's great power can transform you into christ's image both inwardly and outwardly repentance is a vital part of our salvation experience it's part of our initial response to the
00:40:32 lord jesus christ in order to turn in faith to jesus but we must at the same time turn from sin turn from self and other gods now that does not mean we will never sin again we will continue to struggle nobody can live without sin as a matter of fact first john chapter 1 tells us that if we say we have no sin we are just deceiving ourselves as a matter of fact it says we are lying so after coming to faith in christ we continue to walk in faith with repentance being an ongoing daily part of our walk with god
00:41:19 today if you have never accepted jesus as your lord and savior i would encourage you to do that now the kingdom of heaven is near the savior has come is your heart prepared to receive him confess to him your need to be forgiven and renewed and ask him to take control of your life if you've already received jesus and have followed his example then you need to follow his example by obeying him in the act of baptism if not that's a step of faith you'll want to take when possible all of us know people who
00:42:07 are outside of the kingdom of god yet some of the people we know who are outside of god's kingdom undoubtedly desire to know god some of them would want to be part of a community where god's love can touch them and the others around them so let's do what we can to help them know how they can enter into the kingdom of heaven let's pray together almighty god as we have looked at the scripture passage we give you thanks for your promise of salvation we give you thanks for the fulfillment of prophecy that the promised one
00:42:51 the anointed king the messiah the one who will bring forgiveness of sin deliverance to us we thank you that he has come and we thank you that it's possible for us to receive him allow him to come into our lives so almighty god i ask your blessings on all who have listened to the sermon this morning pray to all who have heard your voice speak to them and i pray that you will open our hearts show us our need for you i pray if there's someone here this morning who has never responded in repentance
00:43:23 and faith to you acknowledging you as savior and receiving you as the lord the master of their life that they would do that now and almighty god there might be some who have made that step of faith but have not yet been baptized and i pray for them that you would show them the importance of taking this step of obedience following the example of jesus and would go ahead and take that step to be baptized and father god i pray that you would guide each one of us in our relationships with other people
00:43:54 that we would live in such a way that it shows that we are indeed members of your kingdom and i pray that you will help us to share the good news with others so that they can too come into your kingdom almighty god we acknowledge that even though we want to serve you and follow you that we do still daily need your cleansing we daily need you to purify us we daily need to cast aside idols i pray that you would give us a clean heart i pray that you would help us to seek only you to serve and to follow you
00:44:36 in jesus name i pray amen
